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Jagan sounds the poll bugle, from Chandrababu Naidu’s seat
Andhra Pradesh CM Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy also listed the Rs 65 crore worth of developmental works in the Kuppam municipality area that his government had sanctioned, promising more funds in the coming days.
TWO years to go for the Andhra Pradesh Assembly elections, Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy has sounded the poll bugle, from the constituency of TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu. Holding a meeting with leaders of his YSR Congress Party, Jagan said Friday: “The election battle starts at Kuppam, with the ultimate aim of winning 175 out of 175 seats.”
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Declaring Kuppam “the main scene of the poll battle”, the CM exhorted party leaders and cadre to start preparations to “kick Chandrababu and TDP out forever” from there. He also listed the Rs 65 crore worth of developmental works in the Kuppam municipality area that his government had sanctioned, promising more funds in the coming days. Kuppam was as important to him as his own constituency Pulivendula in Kadapa, Jagan said.
Kuppam in Chittoor district has been represented by Naidu since 1989. In the 2019 elections which the YSRCP swept, with 151 seats, reducing the TDP to 23, Naidu’s vote percentage here slipped for the first time below 60%, to 55.18%. The YSRCP’s K Chandramouli got 38% of the votes, with the Jana Sena and BJP seen as having cut into Naidu’s support.
Since then, the YSRCP has gone from strength to strength in the state, winning all the urban and rural local bodies. With the Congress decimated by the YSRCP’s rise, the TDP is virtually the only Opposition in the state.
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Senior Andhra minister Botsa Satyanarayana said Jagan will interact with party leaders of all 175 Assembly constituencies in the coming days, and that Kuppam was just the start. “Party leaders, MLAs and ministers are already touring the constituencies,” he said.
In his interaction with party leaders, Jagan suggested that they focus on his government’s welfare schemes for backward classes, given the high concentration of their numbers in Kuppam.
The CM also announced the YSRCP candidate for the 2024 elections: K Bharat, the son of its 2019 candidate Chandramouli, since demised. “Bharat has been doing excellent work for the party in the constituency and played a major role in our victory in the local body and municipal elections,” Jagan said, adding that if he defeated Naidu and the YSRCP returned to power, Bharat would be accommodated in the Cabinet.